8 years ago - 20-year-old Siobhan returns home to Ireland when her father dies to complete a ritual to bind her Silver Banshee spirit within her, but her brother PJ steals the book comtaining the spells, freeing the spirit to dominate Siobhan, leading her to America to destroy his enemies. Superman can only slow her until the book is finally destroyed, causing the spirit to vanish.

7 years ago - 21-year-old Siobhan is possessed again by the Silver Banshee when an occult book collector uncovers a new copy of the McDougal clan spellbook in Gotham. Batman brings the books to Zatanna so that she can bind the spirit within Siobhan's body again.

3 years ago - 25-year-old Siobhan McDougal has the spells binding the Silver Banshee within her manipulated by Felix Faust, who uses her and Valerie Beaudry to attack Wonder Woman until they work together to overcome Fausts spells and their own possession.

Silver Banshee is one of the best villians designed for Superman in the post-crisis John Byrne era. She has a lot of appearances, and for good reason; she's an amazing enemy to deploy against the Man of Steel. She's entirely magical which makes him particularly vulnerable to her, and her design is such a standout. She really does look fantastic. Like a lot of characters developed in that era, the characterization is a little shaky and she's been depicted with conflicting motivations at different times, but she's definitely a character that we need in Clark's rogue's gallery.

Silver Banshee's Comic History

Silver Banshee is a character invented in the late 80's as a way to expand Superman's rogues gallery with a broader spectrum of character types. She's been used in a lot of different ways over the years; as a vengeful spirit, mercenary, and even as a possible anti-hero.

Like many post new 52 characters she was given a different civilian identity for no real discernable reason; Siobhan McDougal became Siobhan Smythe. This version of the character actually became part of the supporting cast of the 2011 new 52 reboot of Supergirl, and would also appear in the Supergirl live-action tv series.

​There really isn't a singular purpose for the character, but what she does have is a real clarity of design. The costume works, and with the understanding that she's a magically powered spirit it's understood that she can be more than a match for any hero she happens to battle. The task the becomes to take the character concept and give her a purpose.

Our Silver Banshee's Story & Appearance

I should address the elephant in the room here; there's an element of victimhood in the overarching story we've assembled for Siobhan. It comes from a honest place: a central tennant of the character's design is that it's an Irish woman whose family is bonded with a malevolent celtic spirit. What she does with that changes from one version to the other, but it's all part of the fabric of her design. This makes her reminiscent of several classic DC villains, most notably Green Lantern's Star Saphire, where a female character is possessed by the bad guy and, by default, becomes the victim.

So to combat that idea, it needs to not be the hero rescuing the female victim every time. Instead, she needs to be empowered to save HERSELF. While, yes, we've used some of the classic versions of her story where she's rescued by the likes of Superman or Batman, the character is at her best when she is paired with other magically capable women like Zatanna or Wonder Woman and is able to achieve freedom on her own terms. We even used this as a storyarc for Silver Swan, another character that could do with a dose of empowerment.

Addressing her traditional outfit... it actually isn't inherently sexualized... there are plenty of versions of the character that just look terrifying. Of course, male artists being male aritsts you see plenty of overly-sexual versions of her. Maybe we can just keep that sort of thing to a minimum?

Silver Banshee's Future

The last time we've used the character was in an arc with Felix Faust and Silver Swan where she achieved a degree of control over her family curse. In a more narratively complete world, that would be the end of the Silver Banshee while Siobhan gets to live her life free of her alter ego.

But of course, this is comics. Short of killing the character, she's likely to come back somewhere down the line. That really means one of two things, either she loses control of the spells bonding her to Silver Banshee AGAIN (which actually feels like a step backward, at this point), or she actually starts to be able to use the abilities of SIlver Banshee while still maintaining control.

It fits the mold of comic characters, of course; comics are lousy with one-time villains that became more heroic. She might just find her place in the world. She's already become a supporting character for Supergirl in the new 52 comics; maybe our version of Siobhan might find herself doing just that as Kara moves away to college and beyond.